Bringing the discussion here so we can keep it on topic.
Here is the permit image in question. It appears to be from early 2020, probably when things were just about to really get rolling before Covid slowed everything down. Comments from Loews employees online seem to confirm things are picking back up right where they left off so I imagine all the plans are still on, same as before. We still haven't gotten anything new to compare though, so consider these "old" until verified by newer ones!
View attachment 16026
These are Projects 912 (hotel on the right of Kirkman, and 913 (left of Kirkman). Both are located just south of Epic Universe. The road at the bottom of the image is Universal Blvd. For reference:
Thanks for sharing that.
The first things that jump out at me are the similarities and differences between the two sides. While the tower building footprints are very similar, the parking garage on the east side appears to be about 30% longer than the one on the west, and the east side also has a ~120 spot surface lot too. The east plot also shows a second multilane drop off area in front of that garage, which could just be the bus stops but otherwise seems pretty weird as depicted in these plans. Additionally, the entrance road to P912 clearly has two lanes in each direction while the entrance road to P913 is only single lane width, which suggests that there will be more traffic on the east side, albeit potentially due to expansion on the plot north of P912 (although it seems like that would require canal modifications, which these plans don't show at all).
In terms of height, each of these towers does have a larger footprint that Aventura, but not massively larger, so if the 750 room reporting is correct I wouldn't be surprised to see towers in the 12 story range (Dockside tops out at 13 for comparison).
It's no surprise that the towers are oriented to provide theme park views, and P912 looks well laid out with the pond on the south at the resort area entrance and the parking garage and BOH spaces fronting the adjacent apartments. I'm more confused on the west side, because Universal bought the land to the west of P913 back in Sept 2019. It will be interesting to see if these are just old plans and they change things to better connect west or if they do mostly block that parcel from having a nice walking connection.
Looking at Universal's hotel tiers, the biggest physical difference separating value from prime value besides the hotel rooms themselves is the ability to walk to the parks, and while this image is messy due to conflicting versions of plans, it does seem like there will be some sort of path connection from these resorts to the park which suggests a prime value is more likely than a value. I don't see anything on these plans suggesting they would be a preferred resort, and I'm pretty skeptical of Universal adding preferred resorts in general because the only existing one is basically a premier resort without express pass to appeal to the business meeting crowd for the connected meeting space, and I don't know what that market is going to look like in the future.
That's what I was thinking, then someone said "like Aventura" and then I second guessed myself lol
I'm thinking this will be something like "Universal's Gemini Resorts", with one being Gemini Sun and the other Gemini Moon or such (though these sound very Pokemon game like). Heck, they could also apply some sort of sun light theme with bright yellows and oranges to one and a cooler, darker theme to the other.
Thematically, I feel like the sun is already taken by Helios if that's the name for P910.
From these rough plans I'm generally getting a rock/moon/inner solar system vibe from P913 and more of an outer solar system/galaxy vibe from P912, but I have no clue how that would translate into anything meaningful.
If we're just making stuff up, maybe there's 8 fountains in the south ponds because there's 8 planets in our solar system?
And with them being this committed to the universe theme I'm now wondering if they might try to apply some sort of space aesthetic to the elevated circle roadway at the intersection of Kirkman and Universal Way.